Topic: Gameinformer Vs. Nintendo Power

Did anyone notice that Nintendo Power's Website doesn't exist anymore? I searched long and far, and nintendopower.com is shut down for some reason

IKR

Don't worry, Dragoon. The Nintendo Power website is still online. Don't type in "www.nintendopower.com," type in "nintendopower.com."

I like GI. However, there's this spammer w/ a million accounts:
Spammer's account 1
Spammer's account 2
He's getting out of hand. I can't put links to his other accounts fast enough, so that if one gets busted, he can't use another. It's starting to get annoying.

Nintendo Power definitely

Depends, but yeah, they're a little better. A lot of readers hate them, but few have good points. Of course, GI has adjusted by blasting criticism out of their to-do list. However, they should listen to two good core arguments:

• They lack Nintendo coverage. Yeah, they do. Sometimes they make up for it, but seriously - I don't want to read about Twisted Metal all the time. Just a little more. They need to balance it better. Less 360 & PS3, same amount w/ PC, more Wii. Just a little more.
• Their reviews suck. Not always. "Sonic's better than Zelda, Sonic needs a 10 and Zelda & MW3 need a 1! Sonic's the only innovative one around here!" Yeah. That's stupid & blind. Same w/ "******** Wii, 360, and PS3. Go PC!" But you know what? Sometimes the reviews are bad. So they're opinions. Well, guess what? While they are opinions - there's no way to find a game's actual quality - I want good opinions. Tim Turi's great w/ reviews. Joe Juba...not so much. A handheld's a handheld. Snake Eater on 3DS was a little laggy, and was all about matching everything good about the PS2 version. Minus .75 from the score. Circle Pad Pro fixes the problems I spent 3/4 of the article ranting about. Then you don't subtract some more points. It was common knowledge you were supposed to use it, and ABXY controls were nothing more than an amenity. So why worsen the score? It's awkward because the 3DS screen is smaller than your 32" flatscreen? That's part of a handheld game. Why'd you keep subtracting points from the score? In the end, w/ the minor, occasional lag, and funky motion controls, I'd give it an 8.5. He gave it a 7.5. Not the most variance; if he couldn't control his words, he did w/ the score. So what did he do wrong? He made it sound worse than it was. Not to the degree a hater would, but you know what we look for in a review you cannot justify? Good reasoning for the number you gave it. Most of the time, they do fine, but Joe Juba showed how not to do it. He really pushed it, because if he had ranted anymore, readers would have enough reasoning to justify cancelling their subscriptions. Look at it this way: that's the line. You don't cross it. And GI almost did. It wasn't enough to make the Sonic fan's opinion particularly reasonable, but many like him had just had their point proven, and I'd like to see GI do something for once. No one should get fired or anything, but let the staff know what to do, and about how that could affect them from getting the raise, and not getting it.
  Either way, they're okay, but not the best they could be. Above average. Also, it's too bad Phil Kollar's gone. I wish him luck, he was a good writer, and happened to give Nintendo & JRPGs a look, which some of their staff didn't always do, and had good reasoning for his scores.
  EDIT: Oh, I forgot this thread was practically dead. I just wanted to not make a duplicate thread. Sorry.

Any particular reason why you decided you should revive a 1.5 year dead thread, @VincentV?

(Looks above.) Wow this thread has been dormant for almost two years. Anyway I like Nintendo Power more, mostly because I like getting my information for Nintendo. Game Informer just doesn't have the coverage. It's more of a PS3/Xbox 360 magazine. I used to get it with my Edge card but I let that die off years ago I am currently subscribed to Nintendo Power though, and my favorite editor is Chris Hoffman.

LOL He's saying that Game Informer is too biased towards Nintendo and then he says reads Nintendo Power?

Nintendo Power for me. I really don't like Game Informer, especially since it's affiliated with Gamestop. I like all of Nintendo Power's editors and the magazine feels like it has a community to it. I also trust their reviews. They can be quite harsh. Many games they could have easily given perfect scores, they didn't.

Gameinformer gives Sonic games 10/10s and say they are innovative whereas Zelda and MW3 are terribad? I don't think so. GI loves Zelda hence the 10 they gave Skyward Sword. I don't get this topic.

I like both, NP does indeed have some funny writing. They are actually harder on Nintendo games, but i find the reviews accurate enough for my taste so the opinions coming from them matter to me .

I prefer NP. I got pissed with GI after they gave Xenoblade a 9.5 and put it 4 pages from the back. That game deserves notice but instead has loads of other games put before it. I seriously think the game should get a 10 since some games that were fun but not great got 10's. Think it got that score because Monolith Soft didn't give GI any money. I noticed NP didn't give a 10 either, but they dedicated MORE THAN ONE PAGE OF SOMETHING OTHER THE BACK OF THE MAGAZINE (GI i'm LOOKING AT YOU AGAIN).

You do realize that their just opinions right? And anyone worth talking to that reads GI reads the entire magazine, so whether it was on the front page or the back, people will notice it. Especially when they see a 9.5 up there.

Also, note that just because a game gets a 10 doesn't mean it's legendary. It's their opinion and last time I checked GI's Game of the Year was the 9.5/10 Skyrim compared to the 10/10 Arkham City, Starcraft 2 and Skyward Sword.

Hmm, I enjoy both, but prefer Nintendo Power. Do I think Game Informer is biased against Nintendo? No I don't, and I actually think they're pretty fair when it comes to Nintendo. The only reason I prefer NP, is because they cover more of what I'm likely to be interested in, while GI (by being multiplatform) is much more likely to have articles I'm not interested in. To be fair, one thing I like more about GI is the art submissions they feature every month, and I wish NP would add that to their (already awesome) community section.

Also, I just enjoy NPs staff more. The magazine just seems more "fun" than any other VGM (which seem to always take a darker, more serious tone). I really enjoy some of their segments like Power Up (lots of cool things here), Playback (in which they discuss a classic game), Pulse (the mandatory letter inbox), and Community (where they show off cool fan stuff) in addition to the reviews, game articles, and previews. The only thing I wish NP would do better is the way of reviewing downloads. I think they should integrate 3DSWare reviews into the main review section, and do away with the current download rating system (Grumble Grumble, Hmm, and Reccomended). I guess they could keep that for VC reviews, but new download content should be reviewed with other new software (I even believe GI recognizes them in this manner).

To those saying "who cares? Just use the Internet.", I say that while websites like Nintendo Life and IGN get news much quicker, there are still some reasons to read the magazines. One, they still nab exclusive interviews from time to time, in which the person interviewed often gives away new game info, thus if you get the magazine fast enough, like me (by subscribing), you can get that info first. Secondly, by reading the magazines, I get additional opinions on games (I get reviews from Nintendo Life and IGN, AND Nintendo Power and Game Informer). Lastly, they are more fun to read than scrolling through a webpage (especially NP). Of course websites have advantages as well (they get new news more often, and of course the community like this here), but it's foolish to disregard magazines completely.

They're both equal in my eyes. Both know how to write interesting previews and occasionally bring out some good articles, and both of them have generally terrible reviews.

Nintendo Power hands down. Aside from me being a Nintendo Gamer, they have a lot more personality and maturity. They are generally very good with the reviews, sometimes they're too harsh, occasionally to forgiving, but generally have the most reliable reviews of games. I got a GI subscription for having a Gamestop subscription thing, which I almost regret now because I don't really see the benefits. GI is very immature, that's what jumps at me the most. Their editorials and letter sections show this. Regardless of what they want to focus on in terms of systems I don't like the magazine, if it only covered Nintendo I would probably feel the same way. Nintendo Power all the way.

Edit: On a unrelated and random note, since we are talking about magazines, sites, reviewers, and such. I hate IGN. A lot. That is all.

What's so bad about IGN? I go there everyday, and I never see any anti-Nintendo bias. They do have a Nintendo team, after all. Sure, they've been really behind on reviews and news as of late, but when they do come in, they're fair (Ketzal's Corridors, Kid Icarus: Uprising, and Colors! 3D just to name a few recent reviews of theirs all got very positive reviews). Sure, they every once in awhile have a stupid opinion piece like "Why digital only is the future" or "Nintendo should develope for iOS", but again, those are opinion pieces by one editor, not the entire site (the Nintendo on iOS one was written by their ONE iOS reviewer, and of course he's going to try to legitimize it), but their Nintendo staff is very good and close to the Nintendo fanbase (recently they've even been posting blogs from Nintendo fans on the site, which is really cool).

If you want to see a site that's anti-Nintendo, take a peek over at G4.

I don't think he ever mentioned anything about anti nintendo bias -_-

Whoa, someone shoved a Phoenix Down this thread's gob! Ah well, may as well give my delicious opinion.

Honestly, I'm not a big fan of Game Informer (as I've stated once), and we don't get Nintendo Power here. Still, I do enjoy reading the Official Nintendo Magazine, Nintendo Gamer, GamesTM, PSM3 (who are suprisingly honest and frank) and Hyper.

That's your opinion - but I still enjoy magazines far more than browsing the net.

Wow, 7/10 is a 'bad' score? You DO realise 5/10 is average, right?

Are you serious? Nintendo games are known for their stringent qaulity and attention to detail, whilst most other developers (or publishers) these days rush their releases, which have resulted in the advent of endless patches.

Your comparisons are ridiculous. You say non-Mario, Zelda and Metroid games can't compare to titles like Red Dead Redemption for critical praise. By that logic, I could say that Rockstar's non-GTA titles can't compare to Mario or Zelda. You are just arbitrarily picking and choosing a developer's 'big hitter' franchises to make an an asinine point.